Dec 27, 2024 09:40 PM IST
World No.1 Magnus Carlsen struggled on the World Fast and Blitz Championship, ending Day 1 with 2.5/5. Indians Raunak Sadhwani and Arjun Erigaisi excelled.
Bengaluru: World No.1 Magnus Carlsen had a torrid begin to the World Fast and Blitz Championship – shedding in a single spherical and escaping with attracts from the jaws of defeat, in two others to finish Day 1 of the fast occasion at 2.5/5. 5 rounds had been performed on Day 1 in New York, with eight extra rounds to be performed over Friday and Saturday.
Raunak Sadhwani remained unbeaten on the opening day of World Fast & Blitz, gorgeous world No.7 Alireza Firouzja. (FIDE/File)
Amongst Indians, Raunak Sadhwani and Arjun Erigaisi had been the very best performers, ending Day 1 with 4/5. Raunak remained unbeaten, gorgeous world No.7 Alireza Firouzja. The French-Iranian GM enjoying White, selected to not go for a knight sacrifice (21.Nxf7) which might have given him a major benefit. Arjun, who must win the occasion to prime the Fide Circuit and qualify for the 2026 Candidates event, suffered one loss in spherical 3 however managed to win the remaining video games. World No.2 Fabiano Caruana, who presently leads the Fide circuit, completed at 3.5/5.
The upset of the day was Carlsen shedding to 18-year Denis Lazavik with the Black items. After escaping misplaced positions in spherical 3 and 4, the previous world champion’s luck ran out within the day’s last spherical. Carlsen’s kingside pawn rush ended up being counterproductive and he was quickly down a pawn with no compensation in sight. Lazavik had little bother changing his benefit. The loss noticed Carlsen ending the primary day at a 50 p.c rating.
5-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, who’s in New York, spoke of the format of the event working effectively to the strengths of Carlsen. “If you take a very broad view, my feeling is that the percentages work for him. He makes the fewest serious blunders and it’s just this consistency – reasonably good moves. They may not be the best moves, or even the second-best moves but they’re never going to be the worst moves. That strength is magnified in tournaments with more rounds and when they’re all on one day, because he’s very fit. So, this kind of event suits him very well. The longer it is, in fact, he does better. He can often fall behind in the first few rounds…but by the end, there he is!”
On the finish of Day 1, the open part had 4 co-leaders at 4.5 factors – Volodar Murzin, Shant Sargsyan, Leiner Dominguez Perez and Daniel Naroditsky.
Within the girls’s part, America’s 15-year-old Alice Lee had a flawless 4/4 begin with Harika Dronavalli being the one Indian participant among the many chasing pack of 5 half some extent behind at 3.5/4. She was positioned fourth within the standings after Day 1. Seven extra rounds stay to be performed within the girls’s part of the fast occasion.
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